Chapter 6- Computer Animation

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Computer Animation
1. Raster Methods for Computer Animation
2. Design of Animation Sequences
3. Traditional Animation Techniques
4. Computer-Animation Languages
5. OpenGL Animation Procedures

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Computer Animation
• Computer-graphics methods are now commonly used to produce
animations for a variety of applications, including entertainment
(motion pictures and cartoons), advertising, scientific and
engineering studies, and training and education.

• The term computer animation generally refers to any time

sequence of visual changes in a picture.

• In addition to changing object positions using translations or

rotations, a computer-generated animation could display time
variations in object size, color, transparency, or surface texture.

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Computer Animation
• Two basic methods for constructing a motion sequence are real-time
animation and frame-by-frame animation.

• In a real-time computer-animation, each stage of the sequence is viewed as

it is created.
• Thus the animation must be generated at a rate that is compatible with the
constraints of the refresh rate.

• For a frame-by-frame animation, each frame of the motion is separately

generated and stored.
• Later, the frames can be recorded on film, or they can be displayed
consecutively on a video monitor in “real-time playback” mode .
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• Simple animation displays are generally produced in real time, while
more complex animations are constructed more slowly, frame by
frame.

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Raster Methods for Computer Animation
• Most of the time, we can create simple animation sequences in our programs
using real-time methods.

• In general, though, we can produce an animation sequence on a raster-scan

system one frame at a time, so that each completed frame could be saved in a
file for later viewing.

• The animation can then be viewed by cycling through the completed frame
sequence, or the frames could be transferred to film.

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Raster Methods for Computer Animation
• If we want to generate an animation in real time, however, we need
to produce the motion frames quickly enough so that a continuous
motion sequence is displayed.

• For a complex scene, one frame of the animation could take most of
the refresh cycle time to construct.

• In that case, objects generated first would be displayed for most of

the frame refresh time, but objects generated toward the end of the
refresh cycle would disappear almost as soon as they were displayed.

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Raster Methods for Computer Animation
• For very complex animations, the frame construction time could be
greater than the time to refresh the screen, which can lead to erratic
motion and fractured frame displays.

• Because the screen display is generated from successively modified

pixel values in the refresh buffer, we can take advantage of some of
the characteristics of the raster screen-refresh process to produce
motion sequences quickly.

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Double Buffering
• One method for producing a real-time animation with a raster
system is to employ two refresh buffers.

• Initially, we create a frame for the animation in one of the buffers.

Then, while the screen is being refreshed from that buffer, we
construct the next frame in the other buffer.

• When that frame is complete, we switch the roles of the two buffers
so that the refresh routines use the second buffer during the
process of creating the next frame in the first buffer.

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Double Buffering
• This alternating buffer process continues throughout the animation.

• Graphics libraries that permit such operations typically have one function
for activating the double buffering routines and another function for
interchanging the roles of the two buffers.

• The most straight forward implementation is to switch the two buffers at

the end of the current refresh cycle, during the vertical retrace of the
electron beam.

• If a program can complete the construction of a frame within the time of a

refresh cycle, say of a second, each motion sequence is displayed in
synchronization with the screen refresh rate.
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Double Buffering
• However, if the time to construct a frame is longer than the refresh
time, the current frame is displayed for two or more refresh cycles
while the next animation frame is being generated.

• For example, if the screen refresh rate is 60 frames per second and it
takes of a second to construct an animation frame, each frame is
displayed on the screen twice and the animation rate is only 30
frames each second.

• Similarly, if the frame construction time is of a second, the animation

frame rate is reduced to 20 frames per second because each frame is
displayed three times.
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Double Buffering
• Irregular animation frame rates can occur with double buffering
when the frame construction time is very nearly equal to an integer
multiple of the screen refresh time.

• A san example of this, if the screen refresh rate is 60 frames per

second, then an erratic animation frame rate is possible when the
frame construction time is very close to of a second, or of a second,
or of a second, and so forth.

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Double Buffering
• Because of slight variations in the implementation time for the
routines that generate the primitives and their attributes, some frames
could take a little more time to construct and some a little less time.

• Thus, the animation frame rate can change abruptly and erratically.

• One way to compensate for this effect is to add a small time delay to
the program.

• Another possibility is to alter the motion or scene description to

shorten the frame construction time.
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Operations
• We can also generate real-time raster animations for limited
applications using block transfers of a rectangular array of pixel
values.
• This animation technique is often used in game-playing programs.
• A simple method for translating an object from one location to
another in the xy plane is to transfer the group of pixel values that
define the shape of the object to the new location.
• Two-dimensional rotations in multiples of 90 are also simple to
perform.

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Operations
• Sequences of raster operations can be executed to produce realtime
animation for either two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects.
• We can also animate objects along two-dimensional motion paths
using colortable transformations.
• Here we predefine the object at successive positions along the
motion path and set the successive blocks of pixel values to color-
table entries.
• The pixels at the first position of the object are set to a foreground
color, and the pixels at the other object positions are set to the
background color.

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Operations
• The animation is then accomplished by changing the color-table
values so that the object color at successive positions along the
animation path becomes the foreground color as the preceding
position is set to the background color (Figure 1).

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Design of Animation Sequences
• Constructing an animation sequence can be a complicated task,
particularly when it involves a story line and multiple objects, each
of which can move in a different way.

• A basic approach is to design such animation sequences using the

following development stages:
 Storyboard layout
 Object definitions
 Key-frame specifications
 Generation of in-between frames

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Design of Animation Sequences
• The storyboard is an outline of the action. It defines the motion
sequence as a set of basic events that are to take place.

• Depending on the type of animation to be produced, the storyboard

could consist of a set of rough sketches, along with a brief
description of the movements, or it could just be a list of the basic
ideas for the action.

• Originally, the set of motion sketches was attached to a large board

that was used to present an overall view of the animation project.
Hence, the name “storyboard.”
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Design of Animation Sequences
• An object definition is given for each participant in the action.

• Objects can be defined in terms of basic shapes, such as polygons or

spline surfaces.

• In addition, a description is often given of the movements that are

to be performed by each character or object in the story.

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Design of Animation Sequences
• A key frame is a detailed drawing of the scene at a certain time in the
animation sequence.
• Within each key frame, each object (or character) is positioned according to the
time for that frame.
• Some key frames are chosen at extreme positions in the action; others are
spaced so that the time interval between key frames is not too great.
• More key frames are specified for intricate motions than for simple, slowly
varying motions.
• Development of the key frames is generally the responsibility of the senior
animators, and often a separate animator is assigned to each character in the
animation.

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Design of Animation Sequences
• In-betweens are the intermediate frames between the key frames.
• The total number of frames, and hence the total number of in-betweens,
needed for an animation is determined by the display media that is to be used.
• Film requires 24 frames per second, and graphics terminals are refreshed at the
rate of 60 or more frames per second.
• Typically, time intervals for the motion are set up so that there are from three
to five in-betweens for each pair of key frames.
• Depending on the speed specified for the motion, some key frames could be
duplicated.
• As an example, a 1-minute film sequence with no duplication requires a total of
1,440 frames. If five in-betweens are required for each pair of key frames, then
288 key frames would need to be developed.

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Design of Animation Sequences
• There are several other tasks that may be required, depending on
the application.

• These additional tasks include motion verification, editing, and the

production and synchronization of a soundtrack.

• Many of the functions needed to produce general animations are

now computer-generated.

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Traditional Animation Techniques

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Computer-Animation Languages
• We can develop routines to design and control animation sequences
within a general-purpose programming language, such as C, C++,
Lisp, or Fortran, but several specialized animation languages have
been developed.

• These languages typically include a graphics editor, a key-frame

generator, an in-between generator, and standard graphics routines.

• The graphics editor allows an animator to design and modify object

shapes, using spline surfaces, constructive solid geometry methods,
or other representation schemes.
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OpenGL Animation Procedures
• Double buffering operations can be specified

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